Day 1 — Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Welcome to the trial. If you haven't read the principles yet, do that first. It's short.
The deal: 9:00 – 13:30, no phone, no PC outside this window. Plan on 3 to 4 hours of real work today. Read, study, take one version of the exam. Submit before 13:30.
Today's exam covers
- Math — GCF. Find the greatest common factor of two numbers, each between 1 and 99.
- Periodic table — H and He. Protons, neutrons, electrons.
- History — wars 1 through 4. Year each war started.
- Biology — three early evolution events.
The exam has about 18 questions total. There are two versions — A and B. You may take only one. They are the same shape and the same difficulty; just different specific numbers.
What good thinking looks like
GCF
Find the GCF of 18 and 24.
Factors of 18: 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18. Factors of 24: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24. Common: 1, 2, 3, 6. GCF = 6.
Find the GCF of 12 and 35.
Factors of 12: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12. Factors of 35: 1, 5, 7, 35. Common: 1. GCF = 1. (Coprime.)
Full lesson with Euclid's algorithm and more examples: lessons/gcf.
The Fractions Lab at /fractions has an interactive GCF mode if you'd rather practice that way.
Periodic table — today's elements
| Symbol | Name | P | N | e |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | Hydrogen | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| He | Helium | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Hydrogen is the only common element with N = 0. Don't get tricked. Full lesson: lessons/periodic-table-rows-1-3.
History — today's wars (start years)
| War | Started |
|---|---|
| American Revolutionary War | 1775 |
| War of 1812 | 1812 |
| Mexican-American War | 1846 |
| American Civil War | 1861 |
Tolerance on the exam is ±1 year. Full lesson: lessons/history-wars.
Biology — today's evolution events
| Event | Approx. mya |
|---|---|
| Big Bang | 13800 |
| Earth forms | 4540 |
| First life (single cells) | 3700 |
Tolerance on the exam is ±10%. Full lesson: lessons/evolution-timeline.
Suggested study path (only a suggestion)
Total time: 3 to 4 hours.
- ~30 min — Read the GCF lesson. Try the four practice problems with paper. Open /fractions, GCF mode, drill until smooth.
- ~20 min — Look at the two elements. Memorize H and He's P/N/e.
- ~20 min — Read the four wars. The first two are easy ("1775 — Revolution," "1812 — War of 1812"). The other two need a little work.
- ~10 min — Glance at the three evolution events. They're far apart in time, so the order is the easy part.
- break, breakfast, walk — recommend ~30 min off-screen.
- ~30 min — Re-drill anything that felt shaky.
- ~30 min — Take one version of the exam.
When you can do all four without notes, you're ready.
Begin the exam
Pick one. Take one. Submit when done.